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Russia is a long time supporter of the Syrian regime. They supported his father Hafez Al-Assad. Russia has been supplying arms and expertise for 30+ years...

There was no possibility of imposing a "no fly" zone in Syria because Russia supplied the latest air defense missile systems to Syria. In the opening year of the civil war USA asked Turkey to test out this system. (I posted details on this forum at that time) One plane lasted less than 30 seconds, the other a minute and a half. Britain's ancient tornado's would have been lost on their first sortie...

Assad consented to the air strikes on ISIL and Peshmurga as this is helping his position.

Of course these advanced Weapons systems are under the supervision of Russian personnel. The Spetsnez (Russian Special Services) have been involved since the beginning of the civil war.

The West insists on regime change (no role for Assad) which ALL informed opinion recognizes as a grave mistake. Assad and the Ba'ath party are the ONLY political group which can restore order in Syria.

Political reform after the civil war ends should be left to the Syrian people. Some hope

Russia is a long time supporter of the Syrian regime. They supported his father Hafez Al-Assad. Russia has been supplying arms and expertise for 30+ years...

There was no possibility of imposing a "no fly" zone in Syria because Russia supplied the latest air defense missile systems to Syria. In the opening year of the civil war USA asked Turkey to test out this system. (I posted details on this forum at that time) One plane lasted less than 30 seconds, the other a minute and a half. Britain's ancient tornado's would have been lost on their first sortie...

Assad consented to the air strikes on ISIL and Peshmurga as this is helping his position.

Of course these advanced Weapons systems are under the supervision of Russian personnel. The Spetsnez (Russian Special Services) have been involved since the beginning of the civil war.

The West insists on regime change (no role for Assad) which ALL informed opinion recognizes as a grave mistake. Assad and the Ba'ath party are the ONLY political group which can restore order in Syria.

Political reform after the civil war ends should be left to the Syrian people. Some hope

Excellent post. About 2 or 3 years ago Moby was arguing that the West should get rid of Assad and I was telling Moby that the USA and the West should stay out of it, because of the usual blowback.

The tv news shows Kerry showing concern of Russia's involvement in Syria.What I find idiotic, is these rumors come from the media.U.S. intelligence knows who is involved and to what extent.IF Russia wants to get fully involved, then let it happen.Maybe they can get it right, and show the United states how it's done.

If things end badly, it won't be the United state's failure.

US State Dept. nervous about ‘press reports’ of Russian military in Syria

Greece refused the US request to close the airspace of Athens (FIR Athens) for the Russian aircraft with humanitarian aid to Syria. This RIA Novosti said a diplomatic source in the Greek capital.

"On Saturday, the US embassy turned to the service to the Greek government to prohibit the passage of Russian aircraft in the FIR Athens. The Greek Government has refused to do so, so as not to worsen relations with Russia ", - he told the agency.

The source also added that Moscow has received permission Greece on flights to transport humanitarian cargo to Syria in the period from 1 to 24 September. Any official confirmation of this information, the agency could not be obtained.

In an excerpt from a 1990 interview with television network C-SPAN, with Brian Lamb, Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman, the authors of the book "Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community", describing how the office of Israeli Prime Minister stated officially the existing organization of "Mossad" as "Israeli Secret Intelligence Service", or ISIS.

The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection, covert operations, and counterterrorism, as well as bringing Jews to Israel from countries where official Aliyah agencies are forbidden, and protecting Jewish communities. Its director reports directly to the Prime Minister.

May we remind you, that according to reports assigned to the leaks of Edward Snowden, chief ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, named as the agent of the Mossad by his real name is Simon Elliot.

In July 2014 the ISIS announced that "Allah ordered us not to attack Israel," while fighters of ISIS videotaped burn of a Palestinian flag in Aleppo, Syria.

source: offtherecord.net.gr

The above for all of us to know exactly who is behind the murder of young Syrians, whose innocent corpses were viewed around the world and also who are the barbarians destroying ancient civilisation sites in Palmyra and other places.

It will be better instead of photos of the victims to post photos of the killers!

Russia is a long time supporter of the Syrian regime. They supported his father Hafez Al-Assad. Russia has been supplying arms and expertise for 30+ years...

There was no possibility of imposing a "no fly" zone in Syria because Russia supplied the latest air defense missile systems to Syria. In the opening year of the civil war USA asked Turkey to test out this system. (I posted details on this forum at that time) One plane lasted less than 30 seconds, the other a minute and a half. Britain's ancient tornado's would have been lost on their first sortie...

Assad consented to the air strikes on ISIL and Peshmurga as this is helping his position.

Of course these advanced Weapons systems are under the supervision of Russian personnel. The Spetsnez (Russian Special Services) have been involved since the beginning of the civil war.

The West insists on regime change (no role for Assad) which ALL informed opinion recognizes as a grave mistake. Assad and the Ba'ath party are the ONLY political group which can restore order in Syria.

Political reform after the civil war ends should be left to the Syrian people. Some hope

Excellent post. About 2 or 3 years ago Moby was arguing that the West should get rid of Assad and I was telling Moby that the USA and the West should stay out of it, because of the usual blowback.

This poster advocated positive action in Iraq, Libiya AND Syria as people were dying at the hands of a Dictator.

I make NO excuses for supporting the action in the first two instances ... as whay happened in the power vacuums that ensued were forseen by wiser folk..but to stand by and do nothing..as in Syria...has worked out FAR worse.

Some people are in urgent need of professional psychiatric help... Poor loonies, and their families (And us too, who have to read this cr*p they post while having internet access). It must be awful to be hit with such a debilitating illness at such an advanced age... You could be helped in Israel though, we are good in treating it

editedI reconsidered. It's not the problem that there are mentally ill people who post cr*p while unattended, but that they are allowed to do so. Good luck with such moderating of the board.

Unfortunately in this world, there are certain people whose main pre-occupation are to falsify history, dispute events and historical facts and will make every effort to destroy the historical inheritance and life of other people, in an effort to establish themselves as the only truth tellers. These people have already shown to the rest of the world the nasty and vile side of their character and that is why they are so unpopular around the world. I have no need to post here any examples of their abhorrent actions as everybody has seen on the TV live, their actions against the poor Palestinian people, over the years.

The above “quoted” personal attacks and comments are an example of the nasty nature of their character and in respect of other peoples opinions and for the rules of this board, I will not reply in kind, as they wish me to do so. All I have to say is that the nasty dictator, Stalin, had a good idea to get rid of them and clear his country of such nasty people by allowing them to create their own Republic in the Far East corner of Siberia, which still exists, called Republic of Birobidzhan and that is the place where they belong to.

The civil war was ignited in Syria by the western powers as an element of their "Arab Spring" initiative. Syria has for generations been a problem for USA foreign policy as it is implacably opposed to Israel. No peace was ever agreed between Syria and Israel. Russia has supported Syria for over 30 years.

The west could not complete the regime change (remove Assad and the Ba'ath party) because of Russian military support. The USA then started supporting "the opposition" This was EXTREMELY STUPID as many of these organizations later merged with ISIS, whilst others had (such as the Kurdish Peshmurga) are allied to the PKK. The result was an escalation in the civil war.

The civil war in Syria has been in Stalemate for over a year. The principle fighting is between the Kurd's and ISIS. The Assad regime has been brutal in defending it's enclave. The west finally persuaded Turkey to become actively involved and then were dismayed that that Turkish forces concentrated their attacks on the Kurdish militias (which the west has been supporting this groups with $$$ and arms!!!). Turkey correctly views the Kurdish terrorists as the principle threat to domestic security.

Now the West is again talking about intervention in the civil war. Their aim is to still to remove the Ba'athists from power despite the fact that if they do so the whole country will descend into chaos, as in doing so they will destroy the last vestiges of of government infrastructure...

The original problem remains though - Russia supports the Assad regime. The USA knows whilst this remains the case large scale intervention is not an option. The level of force required is too great and the return of proxy cold war conflict in the middle east cannot be contemplated...

It would have been far better had the Western powers never interfered. Assad was/is a dictator but before the civil war started he was quite benign. Syria had a prosperous economy and a growing business class. All this has been swept away. Assad was an eye doctor in London before his elder brother was killed in a car accident and he was recalled to Syria by his father. IMHO opinion ANY peace settlement must include the Ba'athists and Assad. Stability must return to Syria before any meaningful progress can be made. This will require a very strong central government, more forceful than the dictatorship which preceded it...

It would have been far better had the Western powers never interfered. Assad was/is a dictator but before the civil war started he was quite benign. Syria had a prosperous economy and a growing business class.

'Sure', it would have been better to let him carry on bombing demonstrators from the air ..

WHAT has - for example Britain 'done' ...our MPS - foolishly voted to sit on our hands' - based on the premise we screwed up re Saddam and Gadafi and we should let dictators massacre or it will be come our problem ...

'Sure', it would have been better to let him carry on bombing demonstrators from the air ..

At least people weren't drowning in boats trying to get the hell out of there. Fewer people died than now.

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WHAT has - for example Britain 'done' ...our MPS - foolishly voted to sit on our hands' - based on the premise we screwed up re Saddam and Gadafi and we should let dictators massacre or it will be come our problem ...

If only other countries had done the same.

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That plan 'worked well'..

It did, or the mess we would have now with assad totally gone, magnified a thousand-fold.

The 'interference' in Syria is, as usual nothing to do with the benefits of Bashar al Assad as a human being. Just as it was not in Libya or Iraq in the cases of Ghadaffi and Hussein.

Syria is an important transit point for gas pipelines from the Middle East to Europe.

Assad does not want to have his country used to transit Qatari gas. Neither do the Russians, although their relationship with Syria goes back well before this bone of contention came up. The US wants to see Qatari and (probably Israeli) gas get to Europe and so do the Europeans.Other local actors have their own reasons for promoting ISIS activity in Iraq and Syria, reasons which, for the time being, lead to a coincidence of cause.

ISIS is being used to remove Assad from power so that an amenable puppet can be put into power. (And lets not get into the whole 'is ISIS controlled by the US and its allies' - the evidence is plentiful to support that truth).

Any hand wringing over 'humanitarian issues' is simply a diversion for you lot, so that you will not bother thinking about what is really going on and so that you will support the terrible acts of violence against ordinary people.

Logged

"For what else is the life of man but a kind of play in which men in various costumes perform until the director motions them offstage?" -Erasmus

It would have been far better had the Western powers never interfered. Assad was/is a dictator but before the civil war started he was quite benign. Syria had a prosperous economy and a growing business class.

'Sure', it would have been better to let him carry on bombing demonstrators from the air ..

WHAT has - for example Britain 'done' ...our MPS - foolishly voted to sit on our hands' - based on the premise we screwed up re Saddam and Gadafi and we should let dictators massacre or it will be come our problem ...

That plan 'worked well'..

It would have been better to read "Leslied" comments with your eyes opened and not closed. He knows better than you what he is talking about!